Continue to Site

Strange request

Have your best customers feel special or your mediocre customers feel somehow discriminated against? I will take making the top customers happy every time. The idea that all costumers are equal is about as old as the black book. You aren’t in business to serve your bottom 50%. You are in business because the top 20% of your customers pay your bills.

Do you feel ‘discriminated’ against if you can’t go into the executive lounge of an airport while you are waiting for a flight? How about when you walk by the Private Banking offices at the bank? Same goes with pizza. If a customer is ordering 4-5 times a month they are far more valuable than a customer who orders once a month or 2 and only with a coupon. A bit of appreciation goes a long way (and it really isn’t playing favorites, as you have a vested interest in keeping them around).

You might not want to see where the road is going, but you are most assuredly on it. Don’t let yourself get passed by with an outdated mindset.
 
Last edited:
I am going to put aside my normal “driver reaction” answer to focus on a different issue: competition.

I am not talking about whether the shop down the street caters to customers in such a manner, but competition from the suppliers from whom you buy goods.

For example, you sell Pepsi products but the customer wants a Coke “really bad.” Last week, the driver stopped off for some ice cream for the loyal customer (passing on judgment on that one for second) who is now “demanding” Coke. Now what? Obviously the Pepsi distributor will not be too happy if they find out, but this is a loyal customer after all!

Now onto the “evil” subject for a second. Obviously a shop cannot stock all the potential wants of a customer. So unless there is a grocery store next door, there is an obvious burden to the driver who will “waste” time fetching products for customers while he or she could be delivering and getting back to the store for the next “tip.” Furthermore, sending a driver to retrieve non-menu items can delay service to the next customer. Aren’t all customers worthy of the same timely service (especially ones who are not demanding special treatment)?

And finally special “shoutout” to Mike who (possibly sarcastically) points out the wear and tear on a driver’s vehicle (he goes a little too far on the mental anguish though. 😉 )
 
I think a point everyone misses be it making a customer “happy” is that the customers out there order delivery as they see that as a service provides by your business for the products you sell.
Once they start asking to get you to dliver products not from your shop, and perticularly when they are not even ordering is just using you for their convenience. Short and simple.
If anyone wants to go down the track of sending staff to get something from somewhere else to “please” a customer then that is their own business choice.
Sorry but from my side of things if they want delivery of our goods then we do it at a price and if they want us to spend our time (which is money ie wages costs) running around on errands for them so they can stay at home comfty then it’s a no go. I am and never will be a slave to people who just see us as a convenience to them just because we offer a delivery service for OUR products.
But everyone to their own and if you choose that path then that is your business decision and mine is mine.
Dave
 
Last edited:
I am definitely with the “do not do this” group. The problems far out weigh the benefits.
Daddio, I am curious, where you draw the line once you start doing this.
How many items will you pick up at the store, 1, 2, 5, 25 ? I mean, if someone
orders 25 pizzas you deliver them, so why how about 25 grocery items?
I understand you want to be the extra mile guy of customer service, but it is
Ok to tell people no and they will respect you for it if you are consistent.
Penelope nailed it…if you can’t do it all the time for all the people, just say no.
 
Last edited:
Over the years I have been repeatedly astonished by things employees have done, changed or omitted with regard to topics where “no grey area” existed. Once the possibility of exceptions to rules exists, employees and managers have a funny way of deciding that some other scenario is also an exception. The offer of a large tip seems like a factor no? How about who decides who is a “regular customer”? Might that determination be impacted by a large tip?

How does alcohol get into the discussion when the OP did not mention it? Because this is the nightmare scenario at the end of the slippery slope. Do you know what the penalties are for providing booze to underage people in your area? Where I live they are draconian. How about the penalties and community reaction to a situation where an underage person died of alcohol poisoning or got into a car wreck with injuries or death relating to booze your driver delivered. If the request for the “exception” was made to the store rather than to the driver I can see the store coming in for a slice of the fun.

We have had many requests over the years to pick up beer, wine, booze cigarettes… whatever. Some were made to the store over the phone. Others were made to the driver at the door asking them to stop on the next run with a 12 pack. Were some of these from under-age customers? I have no idea. My guess is that it has probably happened but at least having a clear no exceptions policy is step in the right direction.

In a nightmare lawsuit, a history of exceptions allowed by the business is a lighted path to a claim of negligence.

However, I agree with the comments about possibly doing the errand for the customer myself.
 
Last edited:
?[

“Penelope” said:
I have a very simple policy, If it can’t be done 100% of the time for 100% of the customers, than the answer is no./quote]

we have the same policy…consistency is key except I do remember picking up some Nyquil for a regular at the drugstore down the street once
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
See, I am a “Policy Drift” drum pounder myself . . . if you create a tiny, miniscule gap in the policy, then it will tend to drift farther and farther from correct implementation. As soon as one exception is made, then the security and infallibility of the policy is destroyed. It can be recovered, but takes incredible discipline on management part.

That said, there were maybe a dozen customers for whom we would allow a driver to volunteer for a “pick up” on the way to deliver a menu item. We just talked and can remember maybe three times in 7 years doing it for genuine need/housebound customer. It was never a restricted item; that is verbotten. It may or may not have happened, but we strictly limited stops to non restricted items like milk or some such places. drivers almost always got an enormous tip from the effort, and those scant few nearly family people knew it was a privilege and not a right. It only worked because all three parties (customer, driver, owner) were fully informed and conscientious about the relationship. Seldom had 2 drivers who wanted to do it.

We generally agreed that our delivery service existed for the advancement of our own profitability. Now, we might run next door to the Dollar General if there was a free owner to go, and mark up a product for our own profitability . . . but not sure if we ever actually did that either.
 
Last edited:
Funny thing. Yesterday while rolling out I was speaking to asst manager about this topic and he asked if anyone had ever come to the store, ordered and paid for adelivery and then asked if they could get a lift home with the delivery. I vaguely recall an incident when someone asked if they could order a delivery and get a lift home but we declined the sales.
Lo and behold I went out of the store last night to take an item to someones car and a random guy in the carpark asked if we did deliveries. I said yes, thinking he was making a genuine enquiry and then he asked could he get a lift the next delivery out. I told him I will get the taxi number for him then he said no I want a lift for nothing 'cause it’s too far to walk.
Dave
 
Last edited:
Yep, non-employee passengers is another one that comes up.

Our policy is that NO ONE who is not an employee is EVER to ride our cars. (we have company owned delivery cars). This is another “no grey area” rule. Even employees are only ever to be a passenger for the convenience of the business; in other words, for a business purpose. For example, if we are getting slammed and call in another cook, we might have a driver pick him or her up.

Not only do I want nothing to do with the risks, distractions etc attendant to whatever reason an employee felt they needed to give someone a ride, our insurance is not for a taxi service and our drivers do not have public passenger commercial drivers licenses.

Still, over the years, I have personally spotted people in our cars on a number of occasions and eventually had to fire an employee over the policy to convince the rest that I meant it.

The highest risk areas in our business (assumes delco) are tied to the delivery activity. Our work comp is highest there, our liability insurance for just the delivery activity is double the combined total of the regular business coverage and building coverage. The policies are pretty tightly written. This is not area to fool around with.

Our coverage is for activity directly related to our business as described in the policy. It limits who can drive, who can ride, what use the cars are for and how far from the place of business the vehicles are used for regular business use. Whether you have coverage for your own cars or you use hired and non-owned coverage to protect your interests, have a look in the policy and see if it covers you when the car is being used to deliver something other than your product. Do you think an insurance company might want out of liability on that basis? I do.
 
Last edited:
100% no riders who are not staff. You can’t imagine how many requests we get because of our strange delivery vehicles.
 
Last edited:
230_2.png
Daddio:
100% no riders who are not staff. You can’t imagine how many requests we get because of our strange delivery vehicles.
Click to expand...
How many for picking up drunks or dead bodies by the police ??? 😛
 
Last edited:
Daddio only does those runs when business is slow! :shock: Also don’t forget he has water cannons on top for riots and crowd control! 😛
 
I started a good thread, SWEET. 😃

This is not something I would do for every customer, and not something I would do everyday. I understand the objections everyone has made and most of them have merit. My drivers and all employees that answer the phone know that delivering alchohol, cigarettes or food from another food establishment is cause for termintion. My drivers all know that they are not allowed pasengers other than employees. In this instance, the guy was not going to be ordering from us that night regardless because he was grilling. We bought icecream and milk, marked it up and sold it to him.
As far as inconvienencing the driver, I purchased the stuff at the grocery store which is in the same building we are in so it did not impact her. She had to drive a couple of hundred yards out of her way on the way back from a normal delivery, in exchange for this she got her hourly wage, 100% of the delivery charge and a decent tip. This guy normally tips a five, since this was special I am sure he tipped more. Driver was more than pleased. Regardless of that, I pay employees to perform tasks associated with the operation on my business that I assign to them. As long as it is not illegal, unethical or unsafe they have no reason to be upset, and if they are too bad.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top